Black plastic bow piece on Hunter 33

Paul F · Mar 28, 2012

Here is a picture from the back of the piece. It might be more of a job than you think as it entails removing the two chocks and the bow chain plate. I replaced the chain plate last year. Not all that hard but a very narrow place to be inside the anchor locker messing with unruly bolts

http://hunter.sailboatowners.com/images/kb/med/m_630.jpg

Nelsonhow · Mar 28, 2012

The bow cap on my old H-30 was trashed by the mooring pendants such that it kept sawing through new ones. I made an oak cover piece to cover the bow and extends under the bow chocks. This is temporary (going on 4 seasons although the oak cracked last season) it seems to work fine but I'm planning to make up a stainless cover. If you're interested I'll post a pic next time i go to the boat.

Larry D West · Mar 28, 2012

I have 83 30' that I replaced the plastic cap with ss worked fine do not have pic but the next trip I will take a pic and post. I cut out the pieces and had welder make the welds. I removed chocks and furler and traced the top piece and made a 1" turn down and had it welded on . I added 1/4" backing plate in the anchor locker to reinforce all attachments.

SailH37 · Mar 29, 2012

Here's what I did....

I didn't do too much on the looks of the outside, but when I had mine off when I was putting on a new bow roller, I reinforced the bottom of it with glass because it has broken before I bought the boat. I found that the deck to hull joint there at the very front wasn't water resistant at all, it poured in. So, I took everything back apart just to seal it up. Because of previous bow roller work and because of what I added, the whole thing has to come off before I can pull the little black beauty cover off, didn't have to mess with the chocks. I used the 4200 fast cure and it has withstood I'd say about 80psi from the garden hose (gauging that usual common household pressure is around 50psi.).
s/v Renasci

Nelsonhow · Apr 1, 2012

Here's the temporary bow cap I made out of oak

Keep in mind that this is temporary . I intend to make one out of stainless that fits right over the black OEM black fiberglass one. But the temp has worked for 4 years in spite of the split....

J Hunter · Apr 1, 2012

My H-30 '76 has a trashed bow piece as well as of the end of last season. Mine has port and starboard cleats mounted right on the bow piece rather than the chocks on Nelsonhow's 30. I was planning on layering some resin and glass strips right over the damages edges rather than have to take it off the boat, has anybody tried this?

Nelsonhow · Apr 2, 2012

I tried this twice before I went to the oat wood cover. I patched the old cover with epoxy resin and fiberglass. The patch wore through and sawed through the pendants. The wood cover is a temporary fix until i can figure out how to make up a stainless cap.

H33CRich · Apr 2, 2012

Zeke Zambella said:
Hi,

My 81 Hunter 33 has a trashed black plastic bow piece.

I have seen some activitty on this subject but, If anyone has a drawing or some good photoes, I would like to replace it with a more substantial part.
Perhaps of stainless or aluminum?

Anyone got details???

Check out Sylvain's mods at http://hunter.sailboatowners.com/in...7&cat_id=28&aid=7953&page=article&mn=33_77-83

I am going to do a similar thing to this and Nelsonhow's temp oak. I will leave the original cap and place 1/2" meranti on top, with 2 layer's below (height of the cap in 1 inch). Plan to cut the side rail rim back 4 inches top allow more room for the bow lines with roller in place.

Larry D West · Apr 3, 2012

Here are a few pic how I replaced the cap on my 30'.

H33CRich · Apr 3, 2012

Zeke Zambella said:
Thank you all for your input.

I will make up a drawing and a plate for this. Probably in the fall this year when we take down the mast.

If anyone wants the drawing when I am done, your welcome to it...

Z-BREEZE
Salem MA

Sounds good Z. However, the cap's value is over rated. It is just a cover. You can make your own out of most anything.

I will post pictures of my bow reconfiguration when done. A crude picture/drawing of the concept is here: http://www.richgard.com/H33Images/new_cleat_layout.JPG

The plan is to get the main bow cleat out of the tight spot its in and allow more clearence for the Garhauer AR-35 bow roller. Trimming the top of rubrail/gunwale cap back (the aluminum that sticks above the deck surface and through which you can attach a snatch black) 4 inches will help. The H36 has the right idea with bow its chocks, but I opted for 2 skeen chocks instead.

Nelsonhow · Apr 4, 2012

Larry D West.....

You've done exactly what I intend to do when I replace the OAK temporary cap. What materials did you use? Do you have any diagrams?

Thanks

Nelsonhow@netscape.net

sandpiper10471 · Apr 10, 2012

I had the same issue back when I had a H33. I just removed the cap and reglassed the area, bringing the cloth down the sides to cover the hull/deck joint. Sprayed it black with two part linear poly. Noone could tell the difference. Looked great and didn't leak.

J Hunter · Apr 10, 2012

I went down to my boat and made a cardboard template to have a stainless plate made. I'd like to be able to do your glass job Sandpiper, it's just that "Noone could tell the difference." is about the furthest thing from the reaction I've ever gotten to any of my crude fiberglass repair attempts.

I looked at mine and was a little discouraged about the prospect of detaching the forestay AND the chainplate, and completely extracting the whole old piece.

I thought of a slightly different idea. I'm going to make a stainless piece exactly like the old one that sits right on top of the old one, with a rectangular slot cut out for the deck side part of the chainplate, so the only thing I will have to unbolt are my port and starboard bow cleats. They have bolts plenty long enough to accommodate the thickness of another piece, and will hold the new piece firmly in place when re-installed. I will have it made with a 90 degree 1 1/2 " lip overhanging the edge, which will cover all the damage and sealing up I will do.

Here's a photo of the ugliness as it is, and the template I made. I had some black nylon chocks laying around for years that I could never attach to the old plate because there wasn't enough room between my cleats and the edge of the hull to drill and through bolt them, I'm going to screw them on to the new plate where they are in the second photo of my template. I'll update as I go.

sandpiper10471 · Apr 11, 2012

Right on, J. The reason I took mine off was because the pulpit and chainplate were mangled when I bought the boat. I would never go way up in that anchor locker if I didn't need to. In fact I didn't - I got a smaller, more flexible person to do it. I had tried but just wouldn't fit.

J Hunter · Apr 20, 2012

Update- got the bowpiece back from the fab shop, a local HVAC and panel shop. Won't get to install it for another week and a half. I always seem to go to rugged with stuff like this. I was thinking 3/16ths when I went to the shop, I took the shop's suggestion of 1/8, now i wish I'd gone one gage even lighter, the thing is beast. They charged me $230 to make it as you see it. I was hoping to stay under $150 but needed to get going with it.

ChiTownSail · Apr 21, 2012

That looks really good, and should last a very long time.

Black plastic bow piece on Hunter 33

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